The Economics of Civil Conflict in Africa: The Case of Chad

Abstract

As several authors have pointed out (Collier and Hoeffler, 1998, 1999, 2002; Collier, Elbadawi and Sambanis 2000; De Soysa, 2002; Sambanis, 2002) political and economic shortcomings constitute the basis for civil war. This chapter applies these ideas to Chad, leading up to the outbreak of civil war in 1979, and shows how the conflict had an impact on the subsequent development of Chad’s economy. At the time of writing, petroleum is beginning to flow but conflict continues, the causes of which endure.